Harari v. Lee, No. 10-1075 (Fed. Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff's 398 patent application descends through a chain of continuations and division from the 566 application, which was filed on the same day as the 579 application and identified 579 as a co-depending application. The USPTO declared Patent Interferences against defendants. Defendants claimed that plaintiff's claims were unpatentable for lack of written description support, arguing that the phrase "the same day as the present application" meant the same day that the 398 application was filed, not the original 566 application's filing date. The Board agreed, and, because plaintiff relied on this material, held that the claims lacked written description support. The Federal Circuit subsequently decided a case, holding that the same incorporation language was sufficient. The parties continued to dispute how much of the 579 application was incorporated. The Federal Circuit affirmed one decision and vacated the other. The Board erred in its analysis regarding the incorporation by reference of the 579 application and in its claim construction in one interference.
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